By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, June 16 (Reuters) - Spending on clean energy
projects in Canada fell 16 percent in 2015 compared with the
record investments of the prior year and a renewed push to cut
emissions may not lead to a rebound until 2018, an advocacy
group said on Thursday.
Companies and governments spent C$10 billion ($7.7 billion)
on wind, solar, hydro, biomass and biogas projects in Canada
last year, Clean Energy Canada said in a report, while total
clean energy capacity rose 4 percent to just under 100
gigawatts.
More than half of the renewable investment was made in
Ontario, which aims to have built 20 gigawatts of renewable
power capacity by 2025, while a string of new wind projects in
Quebec added to substantial existing hydro capacity, it said.
But the oil-producing provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan,
which each recorded only a single wind power project last year,
will likely fuel growth in renewable energy over the longer term
after each made commitments to combat climate change late in
2015, Clean Energy Canada said.
"The real opportunity is in Alberta and Saskatchewan, which
still have relatively dirty electricity grids," said Dan
Woynillowicz, policy director at the green advocacy group, which
is based at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University and mostly
funded by philanthropic foundations.
In Alberta, home to Canada's vast oil sands and the world's
third-biggest crude reserves, the left-leaning New Democrats won
a surprise election victory last year and have since said they
will introduce a levy on carbon emissions and phase out
coal-fired power generation.
"You can't ignore the fact that there is more opportunity in
Canada now does, in part, stem from the fact there were changes
in government in Alberta and Ottawa," Woynillowicz said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took power before a global
climate change conference in Paris late last year at which he
promised Canada would do much more to curb its emissions and
spend heavily to build a sustainable green economy.
He replaced Conservative Stephen Harper, who fought to
shield the oil and gas industry from global commitments to cut
carbon emissions.
($1 = 1.2929 Canadian dollars)
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)